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Overview
All Christians are called. Called to love God with all that we are. Called to serve Him. Called to reach out to the lost. However, if we are honest, the majority of us would admit that we find this last calling the most difficult. While we gladly support the evangelistic ministries of others, many of us feel discouraged by our own attempts at witnessing because our memorized approaches don't seem to work.
This biblical study of evangelism gracefully reminds us that the New Testament model of witnessing is not a one-size-fits-all methodology. With compassion for the lost filling every page, Jerram Barrs shows the variety of approaches used in the New Testament-where the same uncompromised Gospel was packaged as differently as the audience-and calls you to follow its example.
You can learn to witness comfortably in your particular circumstances so that sharing Christ doesn't feel like a chore. And as you watch God work in the lives of others and see the great blessings He brings, you'll discover what a privilege it is to live out the heart of evangelism: truly loving others to Christ.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781433518362 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Crossway |
| Publication date: | 02/08/2005 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 288 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Jerram Barrs (MDiv, Covenant Theological Seminary) is the founder and resident scholar of the Francis A. Schaeffer Institute at Covenant Theological Seminary, where he is professor of Christian studies and contemporary culture. He and his wife served on staff with L’Abri Fellowship in England for eighteen years. Jerram and his wife, Vicki, have three sons and seven grandchildren.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
SENT TO ALL ATIONS
In the four Gospels and in the first chapter of Acts we have the privilege of listening in to Jesus' conversations with various people. We are in effect eavesdropping on God! The last three of these conversations that are recorded for us in the New Testament have to do with Jesus' task for His disciples after His return to reign at the Father's side. Christians often refer to this task assigned by Jesus to His disciples as the Great Commission. It was given in the days before our Savior's ascension into heaven, several weeks after the Resurrection.
Despite ongoing doubts among His disciples, being hard-hearted and slow to believe, just as you and I are, most of them were now thoroughly persuaded that Jesus was indeed risen from the dead, and so their faith that He was the Christ, the true Son of God, was firmly established. Now they were ready to get their marching orders, ready to hear from His lips what work it was that He wanted them to do. He gave this Great Commission on several occasions and in various forms so they would have no uncertainty about their calling.
We will look first at the account we find at the end of Matthew's Gospel (28:18-20). Jesus appeared to His disciples on a mountain in Galilee. They were back on home ground since so many of them came from the region around Lake Galilee. He gave them a command, and along with His command He added some words of encouragement.
"All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age."
GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES!
He commanded them to "go and make disciples of all nations." We are so familiar with these words that we don't stop to think how challenging they must have been to those who heard them from Jesus' lips. This little group of eleven ordinary people were to go to all the nations of the earth and turn their hearers into disciples of Jesus like themselves! They were having a hard time believing in Him even though they had been with Him for three years and had lived through all the extraordinary events of His ministry and, in particular, of these past few weeks with His death and resurrection. Yet this little group who were so slow to believe were to convert the nations of the earth!
Most of them had probably not traveled beyond their own little patch of the world, the small kingdoms and provinces along either bank of the Jordan River and across Israel to the Mediterranean Sea. They would have heard from travelers about other parts of the vast Roman Empire that stretched right across north Africa, way up into northern and western Europe, up into Asia Minor (present-day Turkey and Armenia), and over eastward to the borders of Persia (present-day Iran). But they would have no personal knowledge of these faraway places or of the unknown countries and nations beyond these that they perhaps had heard described.
Yet these ignorant, unschooled men — these eleven — were to go and teach the nations to obey everything Jesus had taught them, and to baptize many in these nations into their newfound faith as they became followers of Jesus. Think of the challenge this commission still is to us today, and we take it for granted that we are part of a worldwide church numbering untold millions of followers of Jesus. Then try and imagine how the apostles must have felt!
THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST
But Jesus also gave them some comforting words (they needed them!). He told them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." He rules the unseen world of the spirits. He triumphs over the demons. He defeats the false gods of the nations and breaks their power so that His disciples are able to go out into the world with confidence. They will know, as they proclaim the Gospel, that Jesus has the name that is above every name in the heavens, above every power of darkness, above every spiritual force of wickedness. These men already knew that in the Roman Empire and beyond, people worshiped many different gods. They were being sent out into a pagan world where most of the people they would try to reach would be under the influence of spirits and false gods. They had experienced firsthand the power of the hosts of Satan as those enemies tested them and sought the death of Jesus. But Jesus assured them that just as He had conquered Satan by His death on the cross and made that adversary's plans of no effect, so he would rule the heavenly powers for them as they went into the pagan world.
RULER OF THE NATIONS
Jesus also encouraged them by saying that all power has been granted to Him over this earth. Jesus would rule the nations for their sake as they traveled to them. He would open doors around the world to places that seemed inaccessible. He is the Lord above every lord, the King above every king. Even Caesar, the emperor of an area so vast it was unimaginable to them, would be subject to Jesus. This was the first of His comforting words to the disciples as He gave them their "impossible" calling.
It is the same for us. All the powers of the nations, all the unseen powers of darkness, are in subjugation to Christ. There is indeed only one superpower today, and it is not the United States or its President. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. He rules the nations for the sake of His church, for the sake of the Gospel going out to those nations.
THE PRESENCE OF JESUS
Jesus had some additional encouraging words for them. The first were about power. The second were personal. Jesus promised that He Himself would be with them. Wherever they would go, however hard the road, however challenging the situation, however unwelcoming the people, whatever their feeling of weakness, He would be beside them providing comfort, encouragement, and strength, just as He had been for the past three years of their lives. They would never again be alone. This is His promise to us too, to accompany us always along whatever path into the world He calls us to travel.
CHAPTER 2THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT
Our second example of the Great Commission Jesus gave His disciples is found in Acts 1 and was spoken to them immediately before the Ascension. He had previously urged them to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came to baptize them with His presence. The Spirit was the gift that His Father had promised Him for His disciples. On the night before He died, and on many earlier occasions, Jesus had spoken about this gift of the Spirit that they would receive. Now, He said, that gift would soon be coming, a gift they would receive on the Day of Pentecost, but that we today receive when we first come to faith in Jesus Christ (see Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13; Ephesians 1:13-14).
The disciples were still waiting for this gift when they saw Jesus for the last time. They asked Him one final question: "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). They were not thinking about the task Jesus had set before them on several occasions. They did not at this moment want to remember His words to them that they must preach the Gospel to all the nations before the end would come.
They wanted to know when the kingdom would come, and they wanted it to come now. They wanted to hear about His plans to drive the Romans out of the Promised Land and begin His victorious reign as Messiah. They recalled clearly enough that He would rule the nations, and they wanted Him to start right away and set them on thrones ruling beside Him. He had power over all things; He could surely exercise it for Himself, for them, and for His people Israel! But Jesus replied to them in a very different way than they expected.
UNAVAILABLE KNOWLEDGE
They would not be told when the kingdom will come, when Israel will be restored, when the Second Coming in glory will be. This knowledge was not available to the apostles, nor is it available to us! They undoubtedly were speculating among themselves about just when Jesus Christ would use His power to reign over the nations. Christians love to speculate about the end of the age and make predictions and plans for it, just as many have been doing in our time in the transition from the second to the third millennium A.D. Jesus has said that it is not ours to know; indeed He said that it is not His to know either (Matthew 24:36). Not even Jesus, the Son of God, knows when He will come! We may pray for His coming. We should long for it. But we cannot know when it will be.
AVAILABLE POWER
"If you want power," Jesus said to them in effect, "you will have it. When the Spirit is given to you, power will be yours. But it will not be power to restore Israel and to destroy the enemies of the kingdom. It will not even be the knowledge of when these things will take place. It will be power to witness about Me and the truth of the message I have given you to spread around the world." The church has power today. You and I have power today. But this power is very different than the power we may desire. We want power to see the kingdom coming, power for the healing of our loved ones, power for getting our way personally, or power for having a "Christian nation once again," power for America in the world.
We all have our own agendas for Jesus, just as the apostles had one for Him. He, however, has an agenda for us. His agenda is power for us to be living, speaking testimonies for Him to an unbelieving world, power to love our enemies, power to bless those who curse us, power to forgive as He forgives us, power to love one another. This is the coming of the kingdom that He has in mind for us now. The other kind of power will come later; but this is the power He exercised in His death on the cross, and it is the power He gives us. There is no other power for the church or for the Christian now.
The disciples would be given this power of the Spirit to witness to the world. What did this mean for them, and what does it mean for us?On an earlier occasion Jesus had promised that the Spirit would be a witness to Him.
"When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me; but you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning."
— JOHN 15:26-27
As the apostles went out into the world, they could have the confidence that whenever they talked about Christ, the Spirit would be witnessing to Christ along with their testimony. The same is true for us. We are never alone when we seek to communicate the truth about Jesus.
Later on that evening, during those final hours before His betrayal, Jesus told His disciples more about the work that the Spirit would do. His task would be to work in the hearts of men and women, convicting them of guilt and of righteousness and of judgment (John 16:8ff.). We sometimes think it is our responsibility to convict people of sin, our task to make them feel their guilt. But Jesus teaches us that this is the Spirit's work, that He is able to touch the hearts of unbelievers (and of believers, too, of course) in a way that we never can.
We have confidence, then, that the Spirit is witnessing to the hearts and minds of people alongside us. (Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that we are witnessing alongside the Spirit as He works within unbelievers' minds and hearts. He calls us to help Him, rather than us calling Him to help us!) Does He assist us in our task of evangelism in other ways too? Does He give us power to be Christ's witnesses?
Jesus promised that the Spirit will aid our memories, so that we are able to recall the words of Scripture that we have heard and read (John 14:26). He will also guide us into the truth and enable us to speak the truth (John 16:13), for the Scripture promises us that if we lack wisdom, we can ask for it and God will give it to us generously and without finding fault with us (James 1:5). In addition, Jesus told His disciples there would be occasions when they would be called before kings and governors or would be arrested and put on trial for their faith. He encouraged them not to worry ahead of time about what they should say, for the Holy Spirit would give them the words to speak (Mark 13:9-11). Though Jesus was speaking to His disciples about arrest and trial as consequences of persecution, there is a wider application of His promise. Whenever we are called to bear witness to Jesus we are on trial for our faith, our faith in Christ is on trial, and Christ Himself is on trial; so we can ask for the Spirit's help with the expectation that it is His delight to answer such prayers.
As well as helping us know what to say, the Spirit will also help us to speak clearly and graciously if we ask Him. The apostle Paul asked for prayer that God would help him speak clearly (Colossians 4:4), and we may make the same prayer. In addition Paul asked people to pray that he would be given courage (Ephesians 6:19-20). All of us also need courage, and we may be assured that the Spirit will be pleased to help us. He, the Spirit, is our counselor, our guide, the One called alongside us to help us in our every need. So we may go to Him asking for His assistance in every possible way whenever we want to share the truth of the Gospel.
There is one further way in which the Lord helps us, and that is by opening doors for us to share the Gospel (Colossians 4:3). We follow One who rules the nations, but He also rules over our own personal lives and over the events that take place from day to day. Even the hairs of our heads are numbered by Him; every detail, no matter how insignificant, is within His fatherly care. So we can ask that He will provide opportunities for us to share what we have come to believe. As He goes before us and prepares our way, He calls us to follow His lead and make the most of the opportunities and the open doors that He gives us (Colossians 4:3-6).
What more do we need? Christ is ruling the nations for us (consider the present possibilities for proclaiming the Gospel in what was the Communist bloc). The Father is watching over our lives personally, providing opportunities and open doors. The Spirit is working both in us and in those to whom we are called. With such promises of help, why do we all find evangelism burdensome, difficult, or sometimes even impossible? We will try to answer this question in a later chapter, but for now we return to the Great Commission as it is found in Acts 1.
CHAPTER 3HORIZONS FOR OUR MISSION
THE FINAL COMMISSION (ACTS 1:6-11)
On previous occasions when Jesus commissioned His disciples He had promised help and power for the task of witness, in addition to sending them to the nations. On this final reminder of their calling, Jesus reaffirmed to His disciples the worldwide extent of the Commission. Just before His ascension, He spelled out for them several horizons for the unfolding of their missionary endeavors:
* Jerusalem.
* Judea.
* Samaria.
* The ends of the earth.
As we read the book of Acts we can see that Luke shows how the mission to these four horizons began to be fulfilled in the years following Pentecost. (See, for example, Acts 2:5; 6:7; 8:2-5; 11:19-21; 28:3031.) Because the Great Commission is for the whole church of Christ and not just for the apostles, it is an appropriate application to conclude that the church in every age is called to a similar range of horizons. However, as we will see a bit later, we may express this calling as five horizons of mission rather than four. These horizons provide a challenge and a measuring stick for the faithfulness of each of our churches to Jesus' commission.
OUR JERUSALEM
Our Jerusalem, we may say in application, is the city in which we live, work, study, and raise our families, whether it is small or great. Jerusalem, for me personally and for the church in which I serve, is St. Louis City and County. What is your Jerusalem? What are you doing and what is your church doing to draw people from your locality to Jesus?
OUR JUDEA
Our Judea, we may say, is the country to which we belong, whether by birth, adoption, or immigration. For me, though I am British by birth, my Judea is the United States, for this is now my home. Are we planting churches and sending out missionaries into every part of this nation (for example, into the schools, the colleges, the military, the business world, the prisons, as well as into our cities, suburbs, and rural communities)?
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Heart of Evangelism"
by .
Copyright © 2001 Jerram Barrs.
Excerpted by permission of Good News Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction,
SECTION ONE MISSION TO THE WORLD,
1 Sent to All Nations,
2 The Power of the Spirit,
3 Horizons for Our Mission,
4 How Clear Was Jesus?,
5 "Whom Shall I Send? And Who Will Go for Me?",
6 What About Me?,
7 Where Do We Begin?,
8 For What Are We to Pray?,
9 After Prayer, What Comes Next?,
10 Living Faithfully in the Workplace,
11 A Life of Love,
12 An Open Home,
13 The New Community,
SECTION TWO THE KINDNESS AND PERSEVERANCE OF GOD,
14 Is God Reluctant?,
15 A Reluctant Evangelist,
16 The Importance of Our History,
17 God's Infinite Variety of Means I,
18 God's Infinite Variety of Means II,
19 A Personal Testimony,
SECTION THREE BARRIERS IN THE WAY OF COMMUNICATING THE GOSPEL,
20 Barriers Within Ourselves,
21 Barriers Between the Church and the World I,
22 Barriers Between the Church and the World II,
23 Barriers Between the World and the Church,
24 What Is My Neighbor Thinking About Me?,
25 The Pharisee Within,
26 Memorized Summaries of the Gospel,
SECTION FOUR MAKING THE GOSPEL KNOWN,
27 All Things to All People,
28 Showing Respect—Principle I,
29 Jesus Shows the Way,
30 Building Bridges for the Gospel—Principle II,
31 Understanding What Others Believe—Principle III,
32 Revealing the Heart's Secrets I,
33 Revealing the Heart's Secrets II,
34 Speaking the Right Language—Principle IV,
35 Reasoned Persuasion—Principle V,
36 Answering the Objections to Reasoned Persuasion,
37 Clarifying the Good News—Principle VI,
38 Challenging the Heart and Mind—Principle VII,
Conclusion,